The Digital Composites Manufacturing line by the consortium of Airborne and SABIC is one of the three finalists in the category Industry & Engineering for the 2019 JEC Innovation Awards. The Digital Composites Manufacturing line is a ground-breaking process technology that combines custom engineering with high-speed mass production, converting continuous fibre reinforced thermoplastic composite tapes into light-weight laminates at consistent quality and significantly low cost.
Thermoplastic composites hold great promise for automated and faster manufacturing. In order to truly capitalize on the technology’s potential, an end-to-end automated manufacturing line in which all steps are integrated and automated into a consolidated system, thus producing a constant production flow was developed through a partnership between Airborne and SABIC, powered by Siemens and KUKA technologies. Industries that can benefit from this process technology are aerospace, automotive, sporting goods, healthcare, and mass transportation.
4 parts per minute, 1.5 million parts per year
The new automated digital manufacturing system was built by Airborne and SABIC at Airborne’s facility in The Netherlands and is capable of producing four thermoplastic composite laminates every 60 seconds, totaling up to 1.5 million parts annually. Potential applications include cases and covers for consumer electronics, aircraft inserts, automotive components and sports goods.
A 360-degree virtual reality experience
This year at the JEC World 2019 SABIC and Airborne are celebrating the successfully completed pilot phase of the world’s first automated digital system for rapid, large-scale laminate manufacturing. The companies are beginning the transition to full-scale production, which is expected to be ready in the end of 2019. To preview this unique system, SABIC is presenting a 360-degree virtual reality experience called “Innovations of Scale” in Hall 6, stand P12.
The JEC Innovation Awards ceremony will take place on Wednesday 13 March at 4.30pm at the Agora stage of the JEC World 2019 exhibition.
You can visit us from 12-14 March at booth R11, Hall 6 or read more on what we have in store for you at JEC World 2019!
For more information:
Airborne – Mrs. Bonneke Weber, Marketing Manager: b.weber@airborne.com
SABIC – Mrs. Aline Stanworth, Global Communications Leader Specialties Markets: aline.stanworth@sabic.com.
